Small Talk

I’m lonely.  I need a meeting.

The Puen brothers, from L to R in ascending order of baldness: Chee, Gilbert, Herbert

Almost a year back, Cheeboy and I met up with kuya Herb.

We owe a lot to our brothers in the States (Roy, Ray, and Herb). They basically put us through academy and college (even some graduate school units!).

Age disparity and location prevents us from being close.  I am, however, still very grateful. Thank you, kuyas!

I love dogs.

We’ve always had dogs when we were growing up. Unfortunately, they often died a bit too early on us .Two of our beloved pups were run over by passing vehicles, one had epilepsy, another had a bone stuck in its throat, and the others ran away (to avoid a similar fate).

I’m such a bad dog owner.

Talking about dogs is going to be another of those long-running series I will be writing about. Please bear with me.

……

One thing I realized about dogs is that the dog’s name tells a lot about its owner(s). My dad had a handful of Japanese Spitzes named Scotch, Brandy, and Whiskey.Yes, my dad was a walking liquor store.

My mom, got two Spitzes ten years later whom she promptly named Scotch and Brandy, plus a mongrelplayfully named Bilog (tagalog slang for gin).Yes, my mom was a walking liquor store too, with local taste.

My sister Jane had two half-breed puppies named Wiggle and Bon-Bon.She’s the creative one.Wiggle got her name from the then popular disco hit “Wiggle It.”Bon-Bon got his name from Bon-Jovi.My sister loves discos and dancing.We also had a puppy we called Axel, named after, whom else? Axel Rose.

I vaguely remember naming a few dogs Blackie, Whitey, and Brownie, which just goes to show that I’m bad at giving names.

But probably not as bad as my good friends Neil and Inot who named their Japanese Spitz Jappy because, well, he was a Japanese Spitz.

But Jappy had it made compared to their other dog, which they lovingly named Doggie.Poor thing, he was the dog no one touched because he stank.We couldn’t pet him, so we just politely waved instead.He’d wag his tail in response, probably understanding the situation.

Like I mentioned eons ago, this is part of a continuing series of me telling stories to myself regarding whether teaching is the career for me.

When I was in the 6^th grade, I went from studious dork to truant (and smelly) dork, largely triggered by some issues at home (the fact that we didn’t have any home).To some extent we were left to fend for ourselves.

I started playing truant.I missed most of my classes, often coming only to take tests and exams.

There was this one exam that I remember with a twinge of sadness.My teacher, sitting at her desk checking papers, had come to my exam sheet.While she worked tentatively with her red pen, her face steadily worked into crumpled raisin.Obviously, something wasn’t right.After a few more minutes, she let out a sigh, “Aha, finally, you made a mistake.I thought you would get a perfect score on my test!”

As a naïve 12 year old kid, I was flattered.As a jaded twenty-something, I feel a little disturbed that she was actually rooting against me.Wasn’t she supposed to be happy I was doing well?

She did have her reasons, I mean, yeah, vindication of principles right?Go to class, get good grades; skip class, get bad grades.

I probably just wish that teachers would look not only at grades and performance but also at the student in front of them. Didn’t this student stand out just a year before? Wasn’t he a straight A student?Wasn’t his speech refined and polite? What happened during that summer that made him the class-skipping, cuss-speaking, pre-teen who forgot to take a bath again?

Probably too much to ask. But I’d like to be that kind of teacher

Some time ago, I heard some thoroughly depressing news regarding some of the spiritual leaders I look up to.Evidently, they are a lot more human than I would like to think. And the Enemy has been working overtime on them.

I think we far too often underestimate Satan’s wiles.He’s a lot smarter than we give him credit for.He knows that if he can get a respected leader, someone people look up to, to fall from grace, he’d be dragging a whole grab bag of people along.

A pastor, his church. A father, his family. A teacher, her students.

Pray for those who take the point.